Like millions of other Americans, I am worried about the future of our country under President Donald Trump. I have felt overwhelmed at times, but I am grateful to be tethered to this world. I am loyal to life, still.

While Cleveland saw an aggressive police presence enforce civility between pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators—an LA Times reporter compared the scene to “a heavily militarized debate camp”—Philadelphia is expected to experience a much more active protest scene.

This year’s Republican National Convention was the whitest event on TV. While Donald Trump made sure to line up some minority speakers who could attest that he’s not a racist, despite his multiple attacks against minorities, the ethnic composition and themes of the convention attendees undermined that effort in a big way.

VDare Celebrated Its Tweets Being Featured At RNC: “This Is Great Fun!” The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes VDare.com as “an anti-immigration hate website” with a white nationalist ideology.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, gross domestic product has grown between 1.5 and 2.5 percent every year since 2012. In addition, private sector jobs have grown and the unemployment rate has declined under the Obama administration.

Walking around the streets of Cleveland, it’s hard to miss the gendered nature of the contempt shown for Clinton, what with the tee shirts for sale that read “TRUMP THAT BITCH,” or the frequent references to Trump’s cojones.

“We feel like it’s open season on law enforcement, there’s an assault on decency, and we’re here to stand with law enforcement, and in the event that we’re needed we’ll step up,” Cox said in a weekend interview.

“I don’t want to be a naysayer here and rule out the possibility that everything is going to be hunky-dory … but knowing how the Cleveland Police Department has handled situations in the past, I just don’t have confidence that it’s going to work.”

For weeks now, many of us who live in Cleveland have been fielding questions about how safe we feel about the Republican National Convention’s coming to our city next week. What they’re really asking is whether we’re worried about Donald Trump and the trouble his brand of campaigning may bring with him.

Convention organizers plot tightly scripted, carefully choreographed exercises in promoting their candidates. They want party insiders to depart as enthusiastic workers for the would-be president, and they hope to enlist millions of television viewers in the cause. But something will go horribly wrong.

Right now, we are an entire region of people whose toes haven’t touched the ground since that final buzzer in Sunday’s game against the Golden State Warriors. “Everybody’s friendly, no matter where you go,” the air conditioner repairman told me yesterday as he stood in my kitchen writing out the receipt. “It’s like no one can stop smiling.”

If I’ve learned anything about Steve Loomis from our long, meandering interviews, it’s his certainty that there’s nothing wrong with the Cleveland police force that a more appreciative, compliant population wouldn’t fix.